Ginny and The Boys of Summer
by kelkie
Summary: Postwar Ginny Weasley, set in Hogwarts and Hogsmead. Her favorite bartender is Malfoy, a coworker at school is Harry, her boyfriend is a jerk, and is Voldemort, though defeated, still in her head?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing! All J.K Rowlings!

A/N I hope you enjoy this! It will be D/G, but I'm going to take my time developing it, so they may not snog for a few chapters.

Ginny Weasley was enjoying her summer vacation. She was lounging by the lake at Hogwarts. She had taken over Madam Pomfrey's position as healer and with no students to attend to during the summer term Ginny had some quite nice leisure time ahead of her. It was funny to her, how many alumni had troubles leaving the alma mater. Hermione visited often, flooing into Hogsmede from London nearly every weekend. Harry had taken up the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, much to the chagrin of Snape and the archnemisis of the Golden Trio, Draco Malfoy, with his quite exspansive bank account and quite deceased parents had taken up residence in Hogsmede as Manager of the Hogs Head Pub.

Draco Malfoy was still an enigma to Ginny. After the "death" of Dumbledore everyone was furious at Snape and Malfoy. No one saw how they could ever be trusted, except Ginny, she restrained herself though. She felt it would be tactless in the face of her headmaster's death to announce that it felt odd, to her, that Draco was unable to kill Dumbledore, yet Snape, whom Dumbledore trusted implicetly killed him without hesitation. Ginny never completely understood what had occurred on that tower that night but three months after Harry returned to England, with Hermione and Ron, after destroying the horcruxes and leading the Order of Pheonix into battle against the deatheaters and Voldemort an extremely bedraggled Snape and Malfoy returned to Hogwarts behind an eye-twinkling and limping Dumbledore.

The reunion had been heart wrenching. Malfoy had stood behind Snape and Dumbledore with his arms crossed and a forced look of disdain on his face, while the moment Harry, who had been helping in the restoration of Hogwarts, saw Dumbledore he ran forward and hugged the old man, then he had stepped back and raised his hand. He muttered a spell, unnecessarily performing it wandlessly, and a green light emited from Dumbledore. "It's really you!" Harry had cried out. "It's not polyjuice, it's not a ghost."

Dumbledore had nodded then beckoned Harry towards him, "I believe this is the point where I suggest we go to my office and have a talk. Once more, a foolish old man has been keeping some secrets from you. This time you seem to have fared quite well though."

"We won, if that's what you mean. But Headmaster, we thought you were dead. We had your funeral. How? What happened?" Harry stumbled over the words, still in shock to see his nearly surregate father standing in front of him.

Dumbledore had explained it to Harry and as Harry had explained it to everyone else, it seemed that Lucius Malfoy had, more or less, sold his son to Voldemort. Draco Malfoy, being the arrogant git he was, did not feel like submiting to anyone's will, be it Dumbledore, Voldemort or any unnamed God. He merely wanted to continue an easy and relatively painless lifestyle. Voldemort realized this, legimilacy and all made it extremely easy. So, Voldemort set him a task. If Draco killed Dumbledore then Voldemort would consider his debt paid and Draco could be free to spend the rest of his days being fed peeled grapes on a chez lounge. If he failed, then Voldemort owned him, completely. Dumbledore couldn't bare the thought of anyone suffering, so instead he decided to die. The only problem was they forgot to inform Draco that Dumbledore wouldn't really die. Well, they hadn't forgotten to tell him, they'd just intentionally mislead him so that Voldemort wouldn't be able to see the details of their plan. So, when Draco was unable to "kill" Dumbledore it was all well and good saying spades about Malfoy as a person, but with all the plans already in place, Snape had to step forward and Snape used the spell on the faux Dumbledore and then they all ran. With Dumbledore "dead" Voldemort wouldn't concentrate on him and so instead Dumbledore could concentrate on aiding in taking down deatheaters as they came across them.

Apparently it was an unnecessarily complex plan which could have been diverted with the simple action of Draco flipping the bird at Voldemort and deflecting to the good side.

Ginny sighed and let her feet drift in the water, she watched as the pinkish tentacles of the giant squid got closer and closer and just before he reached her feet, she pulled them out, and watched the squids tentacles retreat back into the watery depths. She sighed. It had been so long since all of that happened. It had been so long since she stood on the Quidditch Pitch, the battlefield, next to Ron and Hermione and Tonks and Lupin, all behind Harry. And when Voldemort came down and killed Bill and Neville, personally, then stopped killing and called out her name.

"Little Ginerva Weasley," he'd hissed. She never heard what he'd wanted to say to her, though, because in the moment of distraction six wands all pointed at Voldemort and shouted curses of different intensity. Then Harry shouted out the single killing curse. He hadn't tried to be noble and duel Voldemort and he'd always felt a dark evilness in the pit of his stomach for using the curse so callously, but he'd done it to protect millions, and that kept him from going insane.

"Hey, Ginny." She looked up, startled out of her memories. "Are you okay? You look a little pale."

She waved her hand, as if waving away the notion. "Aw, thanks Harry. I'm fine though, really."

He came over and sat down next to her. "I haven't seen you for awhile, what have you been up to?"

"Avoiding you," she said with a chuckle and Harry gave her a gentle shove on the arm. She stuck her tongue out at him. "If I tell you, you can't yell at me. I'm an adult and an employee of Hogwarts now." Harry nodded, but was grimacing at the same time. "It's not that bad! Jeez! You plonker. I've been spending a mite time camping in the Forbidden Forest collecting some quite useful flora for potions."

"The Forbidden Forest, Ginny? You know how dangerous it is in there!" admonished Harry.

"Less dangerous since a certain Great-Evil-Git was vanquished," said Ginny with a smile.

Harry ran his hand through his hair. "Hey, Ginny. Do you wanna go grab a drink?"

Ginny nodded. "Sure, I'm pretty parched. I'm pretty sure this golden tan I was going for has turned into a bloody sunburn, so it's prolly time to get out of the sun, eh?"

The two walked in relative silence to the gates of Hogwarts, enjoying the sun and the friendly company. When the got to the gates, Harry asked, "where to?"

"Hogs Head?" suggested Ginny.

"Do we have to?" groaned Harry, "You-Know-Who works there."

"It's less scary if you say is his real name," said Ginny before apparating to the Hogs Head. Harry followed a moment later.

Ginny had chosen two seats at the bar, although it was an empty afternoon for the pub and there were plenty of tables available. Harry walked in and sat next to her.

Malfoy was working behind the bar, he finished drying the glass in his hand and put it down before walking over to the couple. "Weasley, Potter," he greeted.

"Malfoy," said Harry through clenched teeth.

"Hey Malfoy. Where's Christine today? I thought this was her shift," said Ginny.

"Ususally is, Weasely. She's off on a mini-holiday. Decided that this weather was perfect beach weather and she's skipped off to Brighton with that boy of hers, Mike, Matt, I don't know, never can remember it."

"Oh dear, I always thought his name was Jim," said Ginny with a twisted smile on her face.

Malfoy shrugged, "might be. Might be Ignats for all I know."

"Pay real attention to your employees, don't you Malfoy?" said a terse Harry.

"So," said Malfoy, changing the subject, "how can I help you two prats today?"

"The regular'd be great," said Ginny.

"Just a butterbeer for me," said Harry. Then Harry turned to Ginny. "You come here enough to have a regular?" he asked.

"Oh right she does," said Malfoy from behind the bar. "This little girl is a right lush. Gets pissed here then stumbles home."

Ginny laughed. "Oh, shut it you! I come here because it's right next door and some git always manages to steal my broom if I have a single drink anywhere else."

"Wouldn't want you to fall off your broom, would I?" asked Malfoy.

"Just give me my drink, Malfoy."

"See, what did I say? A right lush," said Malfoy as he handed the drinks to Harry and Ginny.

"Cheers, Malfoy," said Ginny.

"No problem. All be over here looking like the surly bartender, call me if you need anything."

"So what have you been up to?" asked Ginny.

"Honestly, I've been looking for Ron."

"Oh, Harry." Ginny looked down into her drink. "You know he's not ready to be found yet."

"I know. But I miss him, ever since he ran off after the war."

"He didn't run off, he just relocated. He was captured by the deatheaters, Harry. He has some bad memories and I think if he needs to go away for a while to make it better, then he should be allowed to do so in peace."

"But, we're partners! I've been through a lot too, why am I not enough for him to talk to?" cried out Harry.

"Because, Harry, you're the one he's always compared to. And, while you are his best friend, he knows that whatever he's been through you will still one-up him, without meaning to. He needed to get away from it all."

"Yeah, I suppose," muttered Harry.

"You know, he might be coming back soon," said Ginny softly.

"Really?" asked Harry, looking up at her.

She nodded. "He still writes Hermione, he still wants to marry her, it's sweet. But she said, that in his last letter, he was talking about preparations to come back."

"That's good," said Harry. "That's very good."

"It really is. I miss him too, you know. And with him gone, I realize just how little I see the rest of the family, and then I feel guilty, and then I get roped into going to Sunday suppers with the family and then I realize that I never want to see anyone from that madhouse for at least another year."

Harry roared with laughter. "Hey! I go to those family dinners, they aren't that bad!"

"Maybe not for Harry Potter wizarding hero extradorinairre. But for little old Ginny Weasley, unmarried nurse at Hogwarts, they are torture!" She smiled. "In a good way though," she added.

She looked up at the clock on the wall of the pub, who's hands were made of finger bones, and realized that it was after eight. She stood up. "I should get going."

"Why?" asked Harry.

"Matt'll be waiting. I promised him we could have dinner together. I guess I'm a little late," she said with a shrug. "Hey, Malfoy." He turned towards them. "Put this on my tab, thanks."

Malfoy waved back at her. "Careful walking home. Don't run into a tree or anything."

"Thanks for caring," she shouted back, as she opened the door.

"Emotion? Never," said Malfoy looked insulted. "I just wouldn't want to lose one of my favorite neighborhood alchoholics. Bye Weasley."

Harry and Ginny walked out the door.

"See you around Harry. Don't try too hard to uncover Ron's hiding place. He'll come back when he's ready. "

Harry nodded. "Yeah. So, er, have fun at dinner tonight."

"Thanks." She leaned forward and hugged Harry. "It was good seeing you. Next time Hermione's in town we should all go for a drink."

"Definitely. Bye Gin'." He said before apparating off.

A/N- That's all for now! Chapter two is coming up shortly. Do you feel like reviewing? You do? That's fantastic! Thank you so much!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

A./N- Thanks to my two lovely reviewers: blissfulxsin and harrypotterchick4ever.

Enjoy chapter 2 everybody!

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Ginny walked up the stairs to her apartment, when she got in there it was quite quiet. "Matt?" she called out.

"In here," shouted back Matt. She followed where his voice had come from to see him sitting in the living room, with all the lights out and the curtains closed.

"Matt, are you alright?" asked Ginny.

Matt stood up and walked over to her. "I have been extremely lenient," he began. "I have let you see your friends. I have let you keep your job, your," he spat out the last word, "independence."

Ginny stepped back, her back now against the door jamb. "That was never yours to give me or take away," she said.

"I can deal with all that," he continued as though she hadn't spoken. "But, cheating on me! I can not accept and will not accept being cheated on. Being laughed at while you gallavant around with some townie asshole."

"What are you talking about?" asked Ginny.

"You having a drink with some chap, looking mighty cozy."

"Matt," she said as she took a step forward and reached up to put a hand on his shoulder. "Breathe, luv. I would never cheat on you. That was Harry, my friend from Hogwarts."

He shook her hand off him and turned around so that she was speaking to his back.

"I swear to you, Matt, I have never cheated on anyone. I would never cheat on you."

"Don't lie to me!" yelled Matt as he swung around towards her, his hand backhanding her in the face.

Ginny flinched backwards. "Jesus, Matt." She reached her hand up to her cheek. "Jesus." She walked away from him, towards her bedroom. "I told you that I could deal with your jealously as long as you kept it in check. I do love you, but….Damn, Matt. I will not be hit!" she shouted to him while pulling a bag out of her closet and she began to fill it with clothes.

Matt came and stood at the entrance of her room. "I'm sorry, Ginny. I didn't mean to hit you."

"I'm sure you didn't," said Ginny tersley.

"Ginny, just listen to me."

"No, I should have seen this coming and I should have left a long time ago."

"Ginny," he growled, walking closer to her. "Listen to me."

"No. You've lost that right."

He pulled her towards her so that she was facing him. "I'm sorry."

"You definetly aren't acting like you're sorry," said Ginny, trying not to shake.

"Well you won't let me apologize!" he shouted before pushing her back. She stumbled and crashed to the floor, her head hitting the wood panel floor.

"Oh," she groaned out.

Matt crawled out on top of her. "I'm sorry, Ginny. I really didn't mean to!"

"Fuck you. I'm out of here." She tried to get up, but Matt was holding her wrists down with one hand and pushing her hips towards the floor with the other. "Let me go, Matt," she warned.

"Ginny, forgive me," he whispered while kissing up along her neck and cheek.

"No. Get off of me!" she yelled while bucking around trying to kick him and free her hands. "Expelleriamus!" She shouted out, trying to perform wandless magic.

Matt raised his hand and slapped her in the face, she felt the blood from her nose trickle down her skin. Matt chuckled. "Never had much of a talent for the wandless, did you?"

"Let go of me!" she shouted out.

He closed his hand around her throat. She choked out a bare bit of breath. "That's better, less screaming. You never listen to me Gin, you just shout at me." He leaned forward and kissed the skin that was turning blue above where his hand was choking her.

She closed her eyes and sputtered out, "Expelleriamus!" once more. This time it worked and Matt went flyng across the room, into the cabinent.

"You bitch!" said Matt as he rubbed his head.

Ginny stood up, shakily, and grabbed her wand and pointed it at Matt.

Matt stood up slowly.

"Leave," she demanded.

"This is our house," he muttered, "why should I leave?"

"Because, right now, you are the one who is destroying the 'us' so therefore you get the honour of finding a new place to stay. Just leave Matt."

"But Ginny, I love you."

"I know. But I warned you. I told you that if you ever pulled another stunt like that one last May, then I would not stay with you."

"But you stayed with me then, can't you give me one more chance?" he begged.

Ginny took a deep breath. "No. No because you'll just do it again and ask for another chance and the cycle will never end and no. Just get out before I make you." She brandished her wand threatningly.

"Fine." He walked towards the door.

"I'll send an owl to find you and get you all your stuff tomorrow. Don't come back here," she warned.

"Whatever," he said before slamming the door shut behind him. Ginny walked back towards the door and locked it, before lying her back against the door and sinking to the floor.

"Shit," she muttered to herself. She stood up and walked towards the loo to inspect herself. She brought a cool washcloth to her face to wipe away the blood. Two large brusies were forming on either side of her face and her eye was turning a deep shad of purple. There was a bright red ring on her neck. Ginny splashed some more water on her face before walking into the bedroom and finding her dark hooded cloak. She put it on so that it shadowed her face. She left the apartment and locked it behind her before heading towards the Hogs Head. She never kept alcohol in the apartment, because of Matt, and right now she desperately needed to drink away some feeling. The Hogs Head was perfect because it was always so dark.

She entered and Malfoy, still behind the bar, gave her a wave, her bright red hair was hanging low, around her neck, not hidden by the cloak. She gave a half hearted wave back, before finding a seat in a booth in a darkened corner. She leaned her head against the wall. After several minutes Malfoy walked over, after making sure everyone at the bar was sated.

"You know, Weasley, we don't have waiters here. You've got to fend for yourself, you've got to go and order and then bring the drink back, too." When she didn't say anything, he handed her the drink he'd been hiding behind his back.

"Thanks Malfoy," she said, taking it greatfully. It was her regular mix: Butterbeer: strong with pumpkin juice. "I might be needing something a little stronger for the next round," she said.

"What happened? Are you all right?" asked Malfoy, sitting down in the seat across from her.

"Yeah. I'm fine," she said.

"Do you want to come up to the bar and talk about it? I do a much better sympathetic bartender when I'm drying a glass with a cloth."

"Thanks Malfoy," she said, "but I really, really don't want to talk."

Malfoy nodded. "Fine. I'll bring over a firewhisky when you're done with this round."

"Thanks," she said.

By midnight most of Malfoy's patrons had left the pub for the night, and Ginny had downed several more drinks. He walked over to her, she was resting her head on her arms on the table. He picked up the latest empty glass and replaced it with a sobering potion, a free service he supplied when he felt as though walking home was going to be too difficult for the customer. She began sipping at it, as Malfoy turned the house lights on so he could begin cleaning up properly.

"Ack!" shouted out Ginny.

"What's wrong?" called out Malfoy.

"This," she pointed towards the drink, "is gross. And why in the world is it so bright in here?" she asked.

"I invested in lighting, but everyone seemed to enjoy the dark and dreary ambience so I only turn them on once everyone's gone. And keep drinking, you'll feel better."

"I doubt it," murmered Ginny as she nursed the sobering potion.

As Malfoy began putting the chairs on the table he began to talk to Ginny. "So, I don't suppose you're going to tell me what happened to make you come in here and drink more in one night than I've seen you drink in a month?"

"I honestly don't want to talk about it," she said, pulling her hood forward, worried that the new light from the pub would make it easier for him to see her face.

"If you're sure."

She nodded. Unfortunately she hadn't yet finished the sobering potion and she nodded a bit too vigoriously. She nodded hard enough that her hood fell back off her head, and Malfoy caught a glimpse of her before she managed to replace it.

"Shit, Weasley." He stopped cleaning and sat down next to her. She turned her face away and downed the last of the potion. "Weasley, what the fuck happened?" asked Malfoy. He placed his finger under her chin and directed her face towards him.

"It's nothing, and it's taken care of now, and I'd really rather not talk about it."

"Was this Matt?" he growled.

She nodded. "But, he's gone now. I kicked him out."

"Damn right you kicked him out. And you called the Aurors, right?"

She shook her head. "No, I haven't. I made him leave. He's gone. That's all. It's over and done with."

"Bastard," spat Malfoy.

"No, it's all right. When I go home, the bruises will have had a chance to set, so I can magic them out. It'll be fine." She bundled herself back up in her cloak, hood firmly over her head and stood up to leave. "Thanks for the drinks, Malfoy."

"They're on me, Weasley. Don't worry about it."

"Thanks."

"Careful walking home," he warned.

"Watch out for rats when cleaning," she said.

He grimaced, then tried to joke back. "Are you suggesting that my fine establishment has rats? Shame, Weasley. Shame on you. See you around."

"See you tomorrow," she said as she walked out the door.

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A/N- I hope you enjoyed it! Reviewing is good for you! The next chapter is nearly finished, so it should be up soon! Ciao 


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Nothing is mine. Nothing. …-whimper- please don't sue me!

A/N: I hope you enjoy this chapter. I know it seems like Malfoy isn't too great of a presence in Ginny's life right now, but I'm working him in slowly. He's worming beneath her skin and so that fabulous things will be happening soon between them…as long as someone else doesn't get in the way…. –bwahahaha- Enjoy! Oh- And thank you for the lovely reviews! TheItalianBanjoist and Phillexican!

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Ginny had made it home, her hand on her wand in her back pocket during the entirety of the walk. Hogsmede wasn't that dangerous, but she still liked the security of the wand in her hand, and she didn't fancy meeting Matt in a dark alley. She locked the doors behind her in her apartment and looked around the room. The walk home, in the brisk English weather, had woken her up and she felt like getting some house cleaning done.

She turned Matt's favorite chair into a large cardboard box and began throwing all of his clothing and knick-knacks into it quite unceremoniously. It didn't take long to empty her life of him. It seemed odd to her that he could mean so much but have as little as a single box of prescence in the apartment they had shared. She taped up his box and used a sharpie to label it 'Prick' before falling onto her bed to sleep.

Her mind was racing. She felt like she was two people right now. The one person was the one who knew that she had to kick Matt out, that he had no right to act the way he had and that she was doing the right thing. The other person was arguing that Matt deserved another chance, that he was so sweet when the first met, that her mother loved him. They had met nine months ago and they started dating soon after. Something just clicked with them. She loved that he brought her Zonko's gifts instead of flowers and chocolates and he loved that she would meet him at the portkey point when he was getting out of work. She loved bringing him home to meet the family, and he enchanted everyone. Charlie, Fred and George grilled him about his favorite foods, his mother, his previous girlfriends, George's best feature, and the like. He seemed to pass their test quite quickly; Chocolate Frogs, Sweet and Stern, Stayed close but not close enough for anything more than monthly friendly conversation, the third freckle below his left eye. After dinner, while Matt was talking to Percy about the standard length of a quill tip her Mum had pulled her aside and asked her when she was going to begin to plant the concept of possibly one day getting married in his head. Because, as she said, "it takes a while for these things to set into lads' heads, dear, I know I have three married sons. Goodness, you saw how long it took them propose!".

Ginny sighed before drifting off to sleep.

When she woke up the next morning the first thing she did was clear up her bruises. The mark on her neck was a bit more difficult to conceal, it wouldn't be magicked away like the others, so she settled with putting a lot of cover-up on it and wearing her hair long. Then she sent Twine, her little red owl, to find out where Matt was staying so she could send him his pitiful box.

Twine came back quite quickly, obviously Matt was still in Hogsmede. Ginny read the note. 'Hey, Gin'. I'm staying at the Crowdlewopps' Bed and Breakfast. Please, come bring me my stuff yourself. I owe you an apology. I owe you a few apologies. Please. With ever and ever love, Matt.'

Ginny crumpled up the note and threw it in the bin. But she couldn't help but stare at the crumpled paper. If she met him in public, they could both get proper closure and she could move on, completely sated in the fact that he was gone from her life. She sighed and quickly penned back a response. 'I'll be there in fifteen minutes. Be outside waiting for me, I won't stay long and I'm not opposed to leaving your stuff on the curb.- Ginny.'

After setting a lightening spell on the box she headed off towards Crowdlewopps'. Matt was sitting outside when she showed up.

"Ginny!" he exclaimed, running up to her. She stood so that the box was in between her and Matt, purposely keeping him at a distance.

"Matt," she said softly. "Here are your things."

Matt looked from the box to Ginny sadly. "Thanks, I guess. Ginny," he said as he reached out and took the box, placing it on the ground next to him. Ginny took a discrete step backwards with the bulwark now out of her hands. "Ginny, I am so sorry. Sometimes, well you know how my temper just gets out of my control. Last night I was just so jealous and so scared of losing you…" he drifted off.

"Well, you've lost me anyway, haven't you?" she asked him, a biting tone present in her voice.

"I guess so," he agreed. "Ginny, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't make any excuses for myself. And I don't deserve another chance, but could I have one? I'm so happy with you Ginny. We fit together so perfectly."

Ginny sighed and crossed her arms in front of her. In any other situation this would have been a romantic, heart-wrenching apology. "Stop, Matt. You've used up your chances. I forgive you, but I won't forget what you've done. So, I hope you have a good life," she concluded, feeling as though it sounded a bit weak, definitely not as commanding as she had intended to be.

Matt nodded, then stepped forward. "Ginny," he said. He reached out and put his hand on Ginny's hip. "Ginny," he murmered. He was leaning in for a kiss, Ginny placed her hand up against Matt's chest to keep him away, but there wasn't enough space between them. Suddenly, a hand was on Matt's shoulder.

"Matt, so good to see you again," said a very stern Malfoy. "Weasley, always a pleasure."

Matt let go of Ginny's waist and she took another step backwards. "Goodbye, Matt." She said it so that there was no mistaking that this 'goodbye' was actually a 'fuck you, get the hell out of my life' in a thinly veiled disguise.

"Right. Right. Well, bye Ginny. Malfoy." He put his hand on his box and then, with a soft pop, apparated out of Hogsmede.

"Where's he going?" asked Malfoy, trying to appear casual.

Ginny shook her head, she had been distracted. She smiled and looked over at Malfoy. "I have no clue. And, you know what, I don't care." She paused and then wrapped her arm around Malfoy's. "Thanks for being my knight in shining armour today, Malfoy. It's always a nice surprise to see your chivalrous side."

He nodded tersely. "Weasel, not a problem. I only walked along about just then though, he hadn't done anything else, did he?" he tried to conceal his emotion, as always, but he was worried.

"Insulting me with pythetic apologies?" she suggested. "That's about as offensive as it got. I can't believe I was with him for as long as I was. No, you know what I can, but still. I'm so embarrased about him." She shook herself making a weird 'blurblurlleb' noise. Malfoy looked at her strangely, but she offered no explanation. She assumed it was obvious that she was trying to shake out the bad. As she continued talking normally, Malfoy assumed that she hadn't had a stroke and thus had no excuse for her random action. "He'll just be a little blip in my life, right? Blips are allowed?" she asked.

He nodded. "Blips are definitely allowed, Weasley. I am the King of Blips."

"Ah, I always wondered what crown the Prince of Slytherin ascended to."

"Prince of Slytherin?" he asked, quirking his eyebrow upward.

She laughed. "Oh! You must never have heard that nickname. Wow, when you were a fifth year a friend of mine, well not really a friend, more of an aqcuantince, Tora McDermott?" she offered up the name and Malfoy shook his head. "Right, you wouldn't know her, but she was two years younger than me. She was terrified of you, as most people were, and one day she saw a few seventh years kow-towing to you and she decided that there must be a secret feudal system deep within the core of the Slytherin house and that you were the Prince."

"Royalty. Nice to know my place at Hogwarts was respected," he said, laughing. "So who was the King, and the rest of the royal family for that matter?" he asked.

Ginny shrugged. "I don't think she ever decided that. But with your aura, Prince of Slytherin definitly stuck with the underclassmen". Ginny just then realized that she was walking Malfoy towards her home. "Oh no," she said. "You were heading the other direction, weren't you?"

"Again, not a problem, Weasel. I was only heading over to get some Bertie's beans anyway, which I can probably do without. So, really, you've saved me from my own bad habits."

"Glad to be of service."

They walked towards Ginny's building, bantering a bit as they were wont to do. Lying down on a bench in front of the building was a certain Harry Potter.

"Can I poke him?" asked Malfoy.

"Oh," said Ginny, looking at Malfoy with wide eyes.

"Oh, what?" he asked.

"Oh, I just never knew you swung that way. Be my guest," she said, gesturing to Harry.

"You both are horrible people," grumbled Harry. He peeked open his eyes. "Hello there Ginny. Malfoy, always a shadow on my day."

"Ditto, Potter." Malfoy turned his attention away from Harry, who was sitting up and trying to straighten out his clothes and his hair. "So, Weasel. You'll be okay?" She nodded.

"So, Harry, what are you doing here?" Malfoy started to back away. He waved to Ginny and she reciprocated with a smile before he turned and headed down the path.

"Well, you mentioned that Ron might be coming back soon."

"Soon, Harry. Soon as in within the month. Not soon as in within the next ten hours." She walked up the stairs and ushered Harry into her apartment. "Welcome to my humble abode."

Harry looked around skeptically. "Where's Matt?"

"Not here," stated Ginny. "So, do you want some tea?"

"That'd be great, ta'." Ginny waved her wand and muttered a little spell and within a moment a faint hissing of steam came from the kitchen.

"So, is everything fine between you and Matt?" asked Harry, hesitantly.

"Better than ever," replied Ginny, honestly. "How about you and…you were dating, Angelina? Right?" That had led to some awkward family dinners with George glaring at Harry from the other end of the table.

"That didn't really turn out so well. I found out that George had been being a jackass, so she just wanted to make him jealous. She never intended to stay with me for long."

"And George took her back?" exclaimed Ginny. Harry nodded, sadly. "Sorry, Harry. At least George owes you now, you know, for not sweeping her off her feet or anything horrendous like that."

"Funny, you are a funny one," dead-panned Harry. "Besides, I thought I had swept her off her feet. I'm Harry Potter, you know. Just check the scar."

"Oh! That's what I meant to tell you! I was in Diagon Alley a few days ago. Did you know that they're selling action figures of you? They made it so it speaks and it calls 'accio' for it's firebolt…a lot. An annoying amount, actually. It's nearly exactly like you."

"Oh dear!" Harry hung his head in his hands. "I am so ashamed!"

Ginny stood up, left for the kitchen and returned with two steaming mugs of tea. "So, really, why are you here? I saw you last night. So many visits, I feel so flattered."

Harry looked sheepish. "A friend of mine thinks he may have seen Ron in northern Italy."

"Harry," she prepared to scold.

He held up his hand. "I know, shame on me. I need you to talk me out of apparating down there and searching every house for him."

At that moment, a tiny owl with impeccable timing flew threw the window. "Rowena!" exclaimed Ginny. "Harry, go grab an owl treat for Hermione's owl, please." He did as she asked and fed it to Rowena as Ginny read the letter. "It looks like I don't need to talk you out of searching for Ron, Harry."

"Why? What's the letter say, is he all right?"

"No, it's just, he supplied an address."

Harry jumped a bit. "Really, where is he?"

Ginny discretely bit her lower lip, something she only did when she was nervious. "Well, Hermione has all the details, as it appears that she is going to visit him this week." Harry had this look of utter pain on his face, so Ginny sighed and then smiled. "And of course they want you to come too," lied Ginny.

"Excellent!" Harry clapped his hands. "I better go pack!"

"Yes, you better," resigned Ginny. "Bye Harry, enjoy Italy. Tell my brother I love him when you see him, okay?"

"Done. Bye Ginny." He bolted out the door and Ginny sat down to finish reading Hermione's letter. She placed her palm on her forehead as she realized that she was going to be in a lot of trouble with Hermione.

'Dear Ginny, I just got fantastic news! Ron is in Italy and he's given me his address! He wants you and I to visit him and he thinks he may come back with us next week, if he feels comfortable enough. He really wants to talk about what he's been through, he also wants to hear about how it compares with what you went through in the Chamber. It's wonderful that he's ready to talk about it now. Lots of Love, Hermione'

Ginny was ecstatic that Ron was ready to come home but she didn't understand why there was no mention of Harry, at all, in the letter. "Go on home, Rowena," shooed Ginny. Then, she lit the fireplace and sprinkled a bit of floo powder on it. "2 Waddlefoot Crescent!" she shouted out before sticking her head into the fireplace and looking about, anxiously, for Hermione.

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A/N- I hope you enjoyed this chapter, there will be more coming. Please review- it makes my ego happy! 


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